Due to concerns about player safety and roster size, Middle Park High School will not have a varsity football team during the 2025 fall season. Instead, the school will offer only a junior varsity roster. Varsity-level athletes will have the chance to play on that team or try out for West Grand High School’s varsity football team.

East Grand School District’s athletic director, Scotty Hicks, explained that this choice was made while keeping student’s best interest in mind, and was driven by concerns over player safety and program numbers following a rough season.

Hicks said that these concerns were first brought up by former football head coach Ryan Ledford who had expressed concern that the school would not have enough qualified players to create a team that could play safely against other varsity level athletes in the 2A West League. Additionally, Ledford only saw the problem becoming worse next season if nothing was done.

During the 2024 season, Hicks said that there were multiple instances when the varsity football team had to borrow players from junior varsity in order to create a full team, due to injuries and ineligibility on the varsity team. These junior varsity players are typically young and unexperienced, which can create safety concerns when playing against other larger, more skilled varsity teams.

Hicks said that he considers a safe football team at the varsity level as one with “kids that are ready to be on the field with other varsity level athletes.”

“Next year we (are) looking at numbers where we (are) going to be forced to play a lot of freshmen with zero high school football experience in varsity contests,” Hicks said.

The league that Middle Park plays in is very competitive league which includes regional leaders such as Basalt and Delta.

The 2024 team had strong senior players, Hicks said, but it was a tough season for the team which ended with at 1-8 record. The team’s lone victory was a 28-6 opener at Estes Park, but they lost their next eight games including a 40-2 tromping by Aspen and a 40-0 shutout against Steamboat Springs.

Coach Ledford had told Hicks that the team would likely be in an even tougher spot next year.

In addition to the varsity team having a rough season, the junior varsity team only got to play one game out of a scheduled five. Hicks explained that this was due partly to other teams cancelling, but mostly due to a lack of numbers on the team.

Hicks, Ledford and Middle Park High School principal, Cindy Rimmer, looked at class sizes, roster numbers and upcoming class sizes during meetings to help decide the future of the program. The estimated numbers for next year’s season include six seniors, three juniors, four sophomores and 14 incoming freshmen.

Hicks said that the decision to cut the varsity football team was made early in the year in order to have as much time as possible to create a viable game schedule.

During the 2025 season, Middle Park plans to offer a junior varsity football team season with a full schedule of games. There are currently seven games scheduled which Hicks said will offer the incoming freshman class a chance to develop their skills.

“We have a really large current eighth grade class that will be freshmen next fall,” Hicks said. “We have a really large current seventh grade class of football players that will be eighth graders next year. We want to make sure that the pieces are in place, so that as we have a year of JV next year. Those freshmen kids have an opportunity to play a JV schedule.”

When speaking with athletes at Middle Park, Hicks said that he has made the varsity athletes aware of opportunities to continue playing on a varsity team if they’d like by using the Colorado High School Activities Association‘s “player without a team” program. This program allows for students to play for other schools if a sport isn’t offered at their school.

After explaining these options, Hicks said that many of the varsity players were interested in playing either for West Grand’s team or playing on Middle Park’s junior varsity team and that four senior players, so far, have made plans to try out for West Grand varsity.

Hicks said that this lack of a varsity team at Middle Park will likely only be for the 2025 season and that the school administration hopes it will return for 2026-27. While much is still unknown about the future, Hicks said that there is also a chance Middle Park could be placed into a new league. The school district is currently in the process of hiring a new head coach.